BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) - Police have identified two men who drowned at Beaver Lake on Labor Day. The victims were Kelley Sean, 21, and Wilson Luibwig,17, according to authorities.
The bodies were recovered from two different drowning sites at Beaver Lake Monday evening (Sept. 1), according to the Benton County Sheriff's Office.
The body of the first victim was that of Sean, who was diving off a bluff into about 70-100 feet of water at about 5 p.m., officials said.
When he went under and did not resurface, his friends phoned 911 to report that he had drowned, according to officials. Dive teams were sent to the site near Martin's Bluff at Hickory Creek Park. The body was recovered before 8:30 p.m., authorities said. (The photos accompanying this story are from the site of the Hickory Creek Park drowning.)
Authorities later Monday night began searching for a body at a second drowning site at Horseshoe Bend in Beaver Lake, which is north of where the first drowning happened, according to the Benton County Sheriff's Office.
In that incident, Luibwig was racing a friend in the water near the swim beach about 7:45 p.m., when he went underwater, resurfaced, and then went under again, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The teenager is thought to be from Northwest Arkansas.
Dive teams from Benton and Carroll counties were at the site Monday night, searching for the body. The teenager's body was located after 11 p.m., authorities said.
The last reported drowning at the Hickory Creek Park site was in July. On July 12, Elijah Watson, 19, of Bentonville drowned in the same area. Watson swam out about 100 yards without a life jacket and was on his way back to shore when he drowned.
The identity of the body recovered will not be released until the next of kin have been notified, authorities said.
